[From the Media Release]
Hue Blanes and Oliver Mann, two of Melbourne’s most talented young musicians, will premiere their collaborative project at the Kew Court House on 5 August.
Audiences to this special show, ‘Blow the man down’, will be the first to experience Hue and Oliver’s original works and to farewell Hue before he heads to Europe for a lengthy sojourn.
This new song cycle sees Hue Blanes composing and on piano while Oliver Mann brings his rich and nuanced voice to the project.
Both Hue and Oliver are highly regarded as composers and singers coming from different musical pathways.
Hue is an enormously respected jazz musician whose talent has been recognised time and again. His accolades include recipient of the 2017 Young Elder of Jazz Award, presented by PBS FM and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival; and six Green Room Award nominations including for Original Song, Writing and Innovative Use of Form. He plays with Jazz Party, the off-beat group who took to the stage at Meredith Music Festival last year, and collaborates with Parvyn Singh of The Bombay Royale for their duet project Singh & Blanes.
Meanwhile, bass baritone Oliver has a classical and opera foundation and has used this training to broaden his musical horizons. He has worked as a collaborator with Mick Turner of the Dirty Three, has performed at the Sydney Arts Festival, and earlier this year performed in the Helpmann Award-nominated production of Saul for the Adelaide Festival. Oliver is a soloist with Opera Australia and has just clocked up 50 performances of a childrens version of Mozarts The Magic Flute with the companys schools touring arm.
Blow the man down uses the traditional Lieder opera style to explore themes of loneliness, longing and the miraculous mundanity of human existence. Hue’s gift for perceptively illuminating the everyday, combined with Oliver’s heartfelt and fully alive singing, makes for a show that is a rare and shining experience.
The Kew Court House is a small performing arts venue presenting some of Australias most exciting artists. A former courthouse and police station, the heritage-listed building presents one-of-a-kind experiences that music lovers wont get anywhere else in Melbourne.